Apple's servers started to sign older versions of iOS for a number of hours on Wednesday night, an issue that gave iPhone and iPad owners a brief opportunity to downgrade iOS to an earlier release, with some hardware found to be downgradable to iOS 6.

The servers were signing firmware versions for iOS from the latest version 11.2.2 update, released earlier this week, to as early as version 6, according toReddit. The version available to users shown on tracker IPSW.me depended on the model of iPhone used, with newer devices able to revert as far back as the version of iOS available at its initial release.

By signing older versions, this allowed any user to take advantage of iTunes' firmware restore facility to use the earlier versions. This also made it easier for users wanting to jailbreak their devices, by allowing the iOS device to downgrade to a breakable version of the operating system.

The signed iOS bonanza took place for a number of hours before Apple's servers reverted back to their previous state, where only the more recent releases for each iPhone were signed and usable. It is highly likely that this was either a bug or a mistake performed by Apple employees, and was completely unintentional.

Apple has yet to comment on the event.

Shortly before the mass firmware signing took place, another post on Reddit noted that some iOS devices no longer had any signed firmware versions available. At one point, the first to third-generation iPads, iPad mini, third and fifth-generation iPod touch, and the iPhone 4S did not have a restorable version of iOS, after Apple's servers unsigned iOS 9.3.5 and iOS 5.1.1.

Apple has a policy of preventing older versions of iOS from being used on its mobile hardware, with legacy operating systems unsigned as newer firmware updates become available. Unsigning stops users from reinstalling legacy versions, forcing them onto newer releases that cannot be jailbroken, offer more security, and have the latest features available for Apple's hardware.

There should be older version of IOS available to downgrade to and newer version if someone wants to upgrade to new features version.

So you can downgrade your phone and re-unlock exploits in the OS. Yeah, thats a great idea! There are reasons why Apple does things the way they do and its not to lock you into a specific OS. The reason I just mentioned alone should be more than enough. Also, if you have an App that requires iOS 11 and you downgrade to iOS 10 well guess what, it no longer works!

Even if this was a goof up in an already bad year of goof ups, I'm given the veery slim hope that they're going to start allowing these all the time in response to the performance degradation complaints (not the battery ones). Only thing would be they'd have to at least security patch them.

There should be older version of IOS available to downgrade to and newer version if someone wants to upgrade to new features version.

So you can downgrade your phone and re-unlock exploits in the OS. Yeah, thats a great idea! There are reasons why Apple does things the way they do and its not to lock you into a specific OS. The reason I just mentioned alone should be more than enough. Also, if you have an App that requires iOS 11 and you downgrade to iOS 10 well guess what, it no longer works!

Your argument is NOT really practical. There are plenty of people (we are talking about few hundred millions of people here) with more than 2 years old iPhones/iPads and they DO face significant performance issues EVERY year after upgrading to the LATEST and supposedly GREATEST version of iOS. Your solution to them is - Learn to live with it because it is secure OR replace it with a newer device (which is what you are more likely doing hence you probably never faced the slow-down issue). And you assume this is good enough for each and everyone owning an old iPhone/iPad. Apparently it is NOT enough of a solution for the people who are struggling with older devices. People who are reasonable about this issue asks for a different solution - Allow the people to downgrade to previous version of iOS which did NOT exhibit significant performance issues AND provide security updates alone to even older versions of iOS for 4 years.

You may argue it costs additional money for Apple to support older versions of iOS. But that is another short sighted view, purely from a shareholder point of view, with total disregard for end-users. If you are an Apple customer, you should demand the best for you as a customer. In this case, good performance for life time of the device (i.e. 4 years) AND security updates for 4 years. Maximizing Apple's profit SHOULD NOT be your objective as a customer.

There should be older version of IOS available to downgrade to and newer version if someone wants to upgrade to new features version.

So you can downgrade your phone and re-unlock exploits in the OS. Yeah, thats a great idea! There are reasons why Apple does things the way they do and its not to lock you into a specific OS. The reason I just mentioned alone should be more than enough. Also, if you have an App that requires iOS 11 and you downgrade to iOS 10 well guess what, it no longer works!

Your argument is NOT really practical. There are plenty of people (we are talking about few hundred millions of people here) with more than 2 years old iPhones/iPads and they DO face significant performance issues EVERY year after upgrading to the LATEST and supposedly GREATEST version of iOS. Your solution to them is - Learn to live with it because it is secure OR replace it with a newer device (which is what you are more likely doing hence you probably never faced the slow-down issue). And you assume this is good enough for each and everyone owning an old iPhone/iPad. Apparently it is NOT enough of a solution for the people who are struggling with older devices. People who are reasonable about this issue asks for a different solution - Allow the people to downgrade to previous version of iOS which did NOT exhibit significant performance issues AND provide security updates alone to even older versions of iOS for 4 years.

You may argue it costs additional money for Apple to support older versions of iOS. But that is another short sighted view, purely from a shareholder point of view, with total disregard for end-users. If you are an Apple customer, you should demand the best for you as a customer. In this case, good performance for life time of the device (i.e. 4 years) AND security updates for 4 years. Maximizing Apple's profit SHOULD NOT be your objective as a customer.

I have many orphaned apps and would gladly revert if possible, maybe on a 2nd backup device - are all the 'progress' zealots just that...?

My pattern had been I used to upgrade every 3 years on Applecare cycles - now running 2010/11 across the board still, incidentally since the current governance (since the passing of Jobs) moved to a shareholder (which I am) annual (rather than on merit) software upgrade cycle...

There should be older version of IOS available to downgrade to and newer version if someone wants to upgrade to new features version.

Single reason why this is no longer an option is jailbreaking. This was Apple solution to stop Jailbreaking, That is why jailbreaking is not a big thing anymore, without the ability to forward and backward on software people have been unwilling to jailbreak. Hacker can no longer guarantee they can hack the next version forcing people to stay on old version of IOS which limits what they can do. When Apple started this practice, the whole jailbreak community came to a halt.

There should be older version of IOS available to downgrade to and newer version if someone wants to upgrade to new features version.

So you can downgrade your phone and re-unlock exploits in the OS. Yeah, thats a great idea! There are reasons why Apple does things the way they do and its not to lock you into a specific OS. The reason I just mentioned alone should be more than enough. Also, if you have an App that requires iOS 11 and you downgrade to iOS 10 well guess what, it no longer works!

Your argument is NOT really practical. There are plenty of people (we are talking about few hundred millions of people here) with more than 2 years old iPhones/iPads and they DO face significant performance issues EVERY year after upgrading to the LATEST and supposedly GREATEST version of iOS. Your solution to them is - Learn to live with it because it is secure OR replace it with a newer device (which is what you are more likely doing hence you probably never faced the slow-down issue). And you assume this is good enough for each and everyone owning an old iPhone/iPad. Apparently it is NOT enough of a solution for the people who are struggling with older devices. People who are reasonable about this issue asks for a different solution - Allow the people to downgrade to previous version of iOS which did NOT exhibit significant performance issues AND provide security updates alone to even older versions of iOS for 4 years.

You may argue it costs additional money for Apple to support older versions of iOS. But that is another short sighted view, purely from a shareholder point of view, with total disregard for end-users. If you are an Apple customer, you should demand the best for you as a customer. In this case, good performance for life time of the device (i.e. 4 years) AND security updates for 4 years. Maximizing Apple's profit SHOULD NOT be your objective as a customer.

There is no evidence to back that statement up, even time a new IOS come out we always hear complains their phone slowed down some how or battery life is killed. When people dig into it, the reality of the situation, the majority of people's perceptions are completely off. Battery issue are usually contributed to the fact most people spend more time playing with their phone after the upgrade to see what is new and how it works so the battery runs down quicker, when they go back to normal usage the battery life is exactly what it was. When people say their phone is slow most time they compare it to someone else's newer model on the same IOS version and they believe their 2 yr technology and slower processor should be as fast as the current day technology and processor.

No empirical data has been presented showing an IPhone of various vintages ran so fast on a previous iOS and ran slow on the new iOS. There has been some data to show the opposite, old phone doing better with the new iOS release because Apple cleaned up some code.

I will give you Apple has broken things on new releases and sometime no work around and you need to downgrade. My solution to this problem, wait, since my phone is critical to my daily work I do not upgrade immediately I wait to see what the impatient must have it now types uncover. Once everyone report it is stable and no real functional issues I upgrade. I personally have not move to iOS 11 and I am glad i waited due to some minor issues people reported.

There should be older version of IOS available to downgrade to and newer version if someone wants to upgrade to new features version.

Single reason why this is no longer an option is jailbreaking. This was Apple solution to stop Jailbreaking, That is why jailbreaking is not a big thing anymore, without the ability to forward and backward on software people have been unwilling to jailbreak. Hacker can no longer guarantee they can hack the next version forcing people to stay on old version of IOS which limits what they can do. When Apple started this practice, the whole jailbreak community came to a halt.

i fully understand that jail-breaking can expose folks to stuff they didn't anticipate if they don't take precautions, perhaps HEAVY precautions depending on the sites they visit and the software they might install outside of the App Store. Protecting casual users from themselves is good.

My question is why would Apple take extreme measures to prevent it if a user decides they want to do so anyway? Sure, it should not be easy. IMO that's an issue on Android, it's relatively simple for a user to disable built-in security safeguards if they want to install software from outside the Play Store. They'll get warnings about it if disabling security features that prevent it, and the setting isn't obvious, but if they've actively made the choice and having been forewarned of the potential pitfalls they can do so. Even there Google will still offer scanning for malware no matter the source, and will still block a recognized malicious app from installing to begin with even if it didn't come from the Play Store.

Rooting, the Android equivalent of jail-breaking isn't nearly as simple or straightforward and not something very many Android users (relatively speaking) would ever attempt.I certainly would not attempt it. But if they're determined they can certainly do so. Why does Apple work so hard at blocking any and all jail-breaking, I believe at one time attempting to claim it was illegal to do so? Serious question. Not saying Apple is wrong for it, just curious about the reasoning.

There should be older version of IOS available to downgrade to and newer version if someone wants to upgrade to new features version.

So you can downgrade your phone and re-unlock exploits in the OS. Yeah, thats a great idea! There are reasons why Apple does things the way they do and its not to lock you into a specific OS. The reason I just mentioned alone should be more than enough. Also, if you have an App that requires iOS 11 and you downgrade to iOS 10 well guess what, it no longer works!

Your argument is NOT really practical. There are plenty of people (we are talking about few hundred millions of people here) with more than 2 years old iPhones/iPads and they DO face significant performance issues EVERY year after upgrading to the LATEST and supposedly GREATEST version of iOS. Your solution to them is - Learn to live with it because it is secure OR replace it with a newer device (which is what you are more likely doing hence you probably never faced the slow-down issue). And you assume this is good enough for each and everyone owning an old iPhone/iPad. Apparently it is NOT enough of a solution for the people who are struggling with older devices. People who are reasonable about this issue asks for a different solution - Allow the people to downgrade to previous version of iOS which did NOT exhibit significant performance issues AND provide security updates alone to even older versions of iOS for 4 years.

You may argue it costs additional money for Apple to support older versions of iOS. But that is another short sighted view, purely from a shareholder point of view, with total disregard for end-users. If you are an Apple customer, you should demand the best for you as a customer. In this case, good performance for life time of the device (i.e. 4 years) AND security updates for 4 years. Maximizing Apple's profit SHOULD NOT be your objective as a customer.

This perceived slowing down is in part as Maestro64 says, due to people comparing their phones to the "ones in the store" and finding them lacking, and also in part because they are upgrading from the best optimised version of the previous iOS to the least optimised version of the new one.The first X.0 version has lots of new features, these features functioning correctly is of utmost importance and not optimised tight code. Each new version of the OS will have more bugs fixed and more optimisations, with the final iterations having mostly optimisations. This explains why X.2, X.3 are usually faster than X.0.The priority number 1 is functioning correctly, only after things are working properly can optimisation take place, writing the best optimised code out of the gate is very rarely possible.

There should be older version of IOS available to downgrade to and newer version if someone wants to upgrade to new features version.

So you can downgrade your phone and re-unlock exploits in the OS. Yeah, thats a great idea! There are reasons why Apple does things the way they do and its not to lock you into a specific OS. The reason I just mentioned alone should be more than enough. Also, if you have an App that requires iOS 11 and you downgrade to iOS 10 well guess what, it no longer works!

Your argument is NOT really practical. There are plenty of people (we are talking about few hundred millions of people here) with more than 2 years old iPhones/iPads and they DO face significant performance issues EVERY year after upgrading to the LATEST and supposedly GREATEST version of iOS. Your solution to them is - Learn to live with it because it is secure OR replace it with a newer device (which is what you are more likely doing hence you probably never faced the slow-down issue). And you assume this is good enough for each and everyone owning an old iPhone/iPad. Apparently it is NOT enough of a solution for the people who are struggling with older devices. People who are reasonable about this issue asks for a different solution - Allow the people to downgrade to previous version of iOS which did NOT exhibit significant performance issues AND provide security updates alone to even older versions of iOS for 4 years.

You may argue it costs additional money for Apple to support older versions of iOS. But that is another short sighted view, purely from a shareholder point of view, with total disregard for end-users. If you are an Apple customer, you should demand the best for you as a customer. In this case, good performance for life time of the device (i.e. 4 years) AND security updates for 4 years. Maximizing Apple's profit SHOULD NOT be your objective as a customer.

But hey- don’t let annoying little things like THE FACTS get in the way of a rant/diatribe!

Unfortunately, you are the one who is talking BS benchmarks which do NOT have ANY relevance to real-world performance observed by the people who are actually using the device in question. I did NOT mention stupid benchmarks as a proof of slowdown observed by people with newer versions of iOS. Even ignoring the battery related slowdown, I did NOT talk about benchmark scores being noticeably less compared to the previous iOS version. Hardware performance across years remains close to when it was new. But the load placed on that same hardware has significantly increased due to new iOS versions, hence the noticeable slower performance in real world. I am talking from my own real-world experience with iPad Air, which was damn fast with iOS7, now to a crawl with iOS 10. I never bothered to run benchmarks in my iPad, but I would expect the benchmarks with iOS 7 and iOS 10 to be similar. Actual user experience - It is a huge difference that I observe day in day out. Now tell me - who is NOT bothered about FACTS? It is YOU.

There should be older version of IOS available to downgrade to and newer version if someone wants to upgrade to new features version.

So you can downgrade your phone and re-unlock exploits in the OS. Yeah, thats a great idea! There are reasons why Apple does things the way they do and its not to lock you into a specific OS. The reason I just mentioned alone should be more than enough. Also, if you have an App that requires iOS 11 and you downgrade to iOS 10 well guess what, it no longer works!

Your argument is NOT really practical. There are plenty of people (we are talking about few hundred millions of people here) with more than 2 years old iPhones/iPads and they DO face significant performance issues EVERY year after upgrading to the LATEST and supposedly GREATEST version of iOS. Your solution to them is - Learn to live with it because it is secure OR replace it with a newer device (which is what you are more likely doing hence you probably never faced the slow-down issue). And you assume this is good enough for each and everyone owning an old iPhone/iPad. Apparently it is NOT enough of a solution for the people who are struggling with older devices. People who are reasonable about this issue asks for a different solution - Allow the people to downgrade to previous version of iOS which did NOT exhibit significant performance issues AND provide security updates alone to even older versions of iOS for 4 years.

You may argue it costs additional money for Apple to support older versions of iOS. But that is another short sighted view, purely from a shareholder point of view, with total disregard for end-users. If you are an Apple customer, you should demand the best for you as a customer. In this case, good performance for life time of the device (i.e. 4 years) AND security updates for 4 years. Maximizing Apple's profit SHOULD NOT be your objective as a customer.

There is no evidence to back that statement up, even time a new IOS come out we always hear complains their phone slowed down some how or battery life is killed. When people dig into it, the reality of the situation, the majority of people's perceptions are completely off. Battery issue are usually contributed to the fact most people spend more time playing with their phone after the upgrade to see what is new and how it works so the battery runs down quicker, when they go back to normal usage the battery life is exactly what it was. When people say their phone is slow most time they compare it to someone else's newer model on the same IOS version and they believe their 2 yr technology and slower processor should be as fast as the current day technology and processor.

No empirical data has been presented showing an IPhone of various vintages ran so fast on a previous iOS and ran slow on the new iOS. There has been some data to show the opposite, old phone doing better with the new iOS release because Apple cleaned up some code.

I will give you Apple has broken things on new releases and sometime no work around and you need to downgrade. My solution to this problem, wait, since my phone is critical to my daily work I do not upgrade immediately I wait to see what the impatient must have it now types uncover. Once everyone report it is stable and no real functional issues I upgrade. I personally have not move to iOS 11 and I am glad i waited due to some minor issues people reported.

Unfortunately for you, I am talking from my own experience with iPad Air, comparing the performance of it with iOS 7 and iOS 10 that I see in real world on a daily basis. Should I believe my own eyes that I see on a daily basis OR someone in an internet forum? Battery life - No, I have NOT seen any difference between iOS 7 or iOS 10 in my iPad Air. It is damn good. Performance - Sorry, it is crawling with iOS 10, whereas it was snappy with iOS 7. I would also like to add - iOS 10 is NOT the worst iOS version that my tablet went through. It was iOS 8, with random restarts killing my regular usage. It was just unstable with iOS 8. iOS 9 and 10 are fairly stable with NOT even a single automatic reboot. Just that it is slower in doing anything - opening an App, browsing in Safari, noticeable stutters in games etc.

There should be older version of IOS available to downgrade to and newer version if someone wants to upgrade to new features version.

So you can downgrade your phone and re-unlock exploits in the OS. Yeah, thats a great idea! There are reasons why Apple does things the way they do and its not to lock you into a specific OS. The reason I just mentioned alone should be more than enough. Also, if you have an App that requires iOS 11 and you downgrade to iOS 10 well guess what, it no longer works!

For some, the only reason they want to do it is because that way they feel they are "beating the system." I have seen numerous instances at work where someone will take a straightforward task and produce a slow, arduous, error-prone "workaround" that is clearly an inferior method than the one provided by the company -- apparently just so they can do it.

For example, I have seen a warehouse picking task where it involves using an RF terminal to scan a barcode, picking an item from a location, then repeating that procedure for each location on their assignment. But more than once people have done an override of the scan (which is intentionally quite time-consuming), wrote down the location and quantity for every item (usually a few hundred locations/items on the assignment), then take their manually generated paper list and pick the items. It takes longer, has a high error rate, yet it provides a small degree of freedom they apparently desire. Those people didn't last long due to poor productivity and poor error rates.

There should be older version of IOS available to downgrade to and newer version if someone wants to upgrade to new features version.

So you can downgrade your phone and re-unlock exploits in the OS. Yeah, thats a great idea! There are reasons why Apple does things the way they do and its not to lock you into a specific OS. The reason I just mentioned alone should be more than enough. Also, if you have an App that requires iOS 11 and you downgrade to iOS 10 well guess what, it no longer works!

For some, the only reason they want to do it is because that way they feel they are "beating the system." I have seen numerous instances at work where someone will take a straightforward task and produce a slow, arduous, error-prone "workaround" that is clearly an inferior method than the one provided by the company -- apparently just so they can do it.

For example, I have seen a warehouse picking task where it involves using an RF terminal to scan a barcode, picking an item from a location, then repeating that procedure for each location on their assignment. But more than once people have done an override of the scan (which is intentionally quite time-consuming), wrote down the location and quantity for every item (usually a few hundred locations/items on the assignment), then take their manually generated paper list and pick the items. It takes longer, has a high error rate, yet it provides a small degree of freedom they apparently desire. Those people didn't last long due to poor productivity and poor error rates.

Unfortunately, you couldn't be further from the truth!!! Old iPhones slowdowns with new versions of iOS is REAL issue which does NOT have a satisfactory solution right now. You can deny it all you want and say that people are making it up, but that is not going away ever until Apple addresses it satisfactorily for ALL the users (not just the ones who upgrade their device once every 2 years). No, people are not interested in "beating the system". At least, a large majority of them are NOT interested in wasting their time in beating the system. They just want to use their phone/tablet. A very small minority - may be, possibly, but you should NOT stereotype each and everyone who wishes to get the previous version of iOS into this category. People want it because there is a REAL problem which has NOT been addressed satisfactorily YET. People go by anecdotal evidence that their own eyes observed - i.e. the phone/tablet performed damn well with previous version of iOS and not with the latest version of iOS. Nobody cares for the reason for the slowdown (battery/new features/bloatware introduced in existing features etc) and that is normal.

There should be older version of IOS available to downgrade to and newer version if someone wants to upgrade to new features version.

So you can downgrade your phone and re-unlock exploits in the OS. Yeah, thats a great idea! There are reasons why Apple does things the way they do and its not to lock you into a specific OS. The reason I just mentioned alone should be more than enough. Also, if you have an App that requires iOS 11 and you downgrade to iOS 10 well guess what, it no longer works!

Your argument is NOT really practical. There are plenty of people (we are talking about few hundred millions of people here) with more than 2 years old iPhones/iPads and they DO face significant performance issues EVERY year after upgrading to the LATEST and supposedly GREATEST version of iOS. Your solution to them is - Learn to live with it because it is secure OR replace it with a newer device (which is what you are more likely doing hence you probably never faced the slow-down issue). And you assume this is good enough for each and everyone owning an old iPhone/iPad. Apparently it is NOT enough of a solution for the people who are struggling with older devices. People who are reasonable about this issue asks for a different solution - Allow the people to downgrade to previous version of iOS which did NOT exhibit significant performance issues AND provide security updates alone to even older versions of iOS for 4 years.

You may argue it costs additional money for Apple to support older versions of iOS. But that is another short sighted view, purely from a shareholder point of view, with total disregard for end-users. If you are an Apple customer, you should demand the best for you as a customer. In this case, good performance for life time of the device (i.e. 4 years) AND security updates for 4 years. Maximizing Apple's profit SHOULD NOT be your objective as a customer.

If you want options and fragmentation then go to Android and enjoy your insecure, fragmented OS. Simple as that. Security alone is more than enough reason for Apple NOT to allow backtracking of updates. Security should be one of the top priorities, not worrying about a supposed slow down in a phone because of an update. If its that big of a deal to someone, then don't update your phone to the newer version of iOS.

This also creates a mess for developers too so you have to look at that end of it as well. Why do you think Android apps are such a mess?